Feb 22, Colombo: A trade union affiliated to Sri Lanka's education sector says that school children are in need of proper counselling.

The Ceylon Teachers' Union (CTU) says that school children did not need military treatment, but are in need of proper counselling.

CTU General Secretary, Joseph Stalin made this comment in reference to the 16 year old student who committed suicide after being reprimanded and embarrassed in public by her school principal.

He said the provincial education ministry should have launched an investigation into the student's death.

Stalin noted that schools need to have proper counsellors for children to discuss and resolve their issues. Instead, what is witnessed at present is a treatment similar to that in the military, he added.